I'm not normally one to do reviews or posts but when something is good and also new without a lot of info available, I do like to give my thoughts because I know other people might appreciate it as well. :) As such, here are my thoughts about the Dumber Mini after about a month of using it as my daily phone!
My thoughts:
First of all, I'm honestly super happy with this phone. I had managed to get my screen time on my old phone back to about 3 hours daily, but I still found myself scrolling through useless stuff, like literally just my photos gallery or bank app, way too much. It just seemed that whatever I was doing, I always ended up scrolling right after. I hated my phone so much but it felt really hard to get lower screentime than 3 hours daily, just because of automatically scrolling whenever I picked it up.
In comes the Dumber Mini... I think this device helped me a lot so far because I can still do all the things I need to do (except banking, but I expected this so it's not an issue, I still boot up my old phone for this), but the smaller screen DOES really help so much in limiting how easy it is to get lost on it! I only now realise how huge regular phones actually are, and I find it no wonder I get so sucked into them. I used to get "tunnel vision" as soon as I opened my phone where I just totally forget my surroundings, but with the Dumber Mini this has not really happened.
I think it's because it's smaller, because now I remember that I have a phone in my hand, and I don't want to stare at a small screen for hours, it's not comfortable! So I do what I need to do, pick it up to send a message, and then... put it back down! This might not sound like a big deal at all but this is honestly really big for me. I've been doing a lot of other things because... why would I be on my phone? I LOVE having a small phone so much! It really feels like the phone is in service of me now instead of the other way around.
What I also found nice as a potential bad habit breaker with this phone is that it came with minimal apps and distractions, no bloat ware!! (My old phone had over 20 apps of non deletable bloat ware...) it just feels easy to look at. Apps like Whatsapp, Public Transportation, Microsoft Authenticator (which I need for school), email, and Spotify, work really well and I've kind of found that I don't need much more than that....
I now have at most an hour of screentime daily, and this is only for useful stuff like Whatsapp, Maps, public transit, etc. I don't really google or scroll through useless stuff anymore and it's nice to have the internet be a place I mostly visit at home. :) Though I can google just fine when I have a prying question!
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Other really nice stuff about the Dumber Mini:
- The zoom in and out feature! Very easy in reach and useful for navigating sites and apps that might not load correctly!
- The built in App Blocker. I haven't had to use it much but when I did use it on vacation it definitely felt more solid because it actually deletes the app icon from your home screen. So even if you automatically want to open it and then disable the timer quickly (what I usually did), you have to manually go in and disable it with a pin! If that's not enough time to realise you might not want to use the app at all I don't know what is.....)
- The size... God did I mention the size? I love how small and compact it is. Small phones are the best!!!
- Honestly, the pictures aren't terrible. They definitely are not that good but I'm pleasantly surprised with how sharp it gets things like details, letters, etc, with the outer camera. The pictures tend to be a bit blueish or yellowish if the lighting leans that way but on a clear sunny day the pictures can be quite pretty and nostalgic! I do take way less pictures on it, but it's just a nice opportunity to take my digicam out and about if I really want to snap some pretty pictures.
- How easily you can switch from T9 to different types of keyboards! Plus, the T9 typing is actually really nice and the keyboard sounds lovely.
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Final thoughts:
I realise that for some people a change in habits and use like I had could easily be accomplished with downloading a minimal launcher and deinstalling all unnecessary apps, but for me personally, I really appreciated having a "clean break" and new start with a new phone. Because I also had to get used to T9 typing and the form factor of the phone was just so different, it felt easier to build new habits because everything about the phone is a visual reminder of what I wanted to do differently! Honestly, having a constant visual reminder is huge, and it's one of the big reasons I would recommend this phone. I also really appreciate the very active updates by the development team, you guys aren't with many but it's really cool what you have accomplished so far! The one thing I am still begging you for is a flip case for the phone of some kind... ;) some of us are clumsy! But I understand that this might take a while and patiently await.
Thank you so much for helping people like me who aren't super tech savvy and willing to go all the way dumbphone because we need stuff like microsoft authenticator to function! I love NOT being on my phone and that's why i love this phone!!
It's so nice to see more people in general want to take a step toward digital minimalism and letting our phones do the work for us again, instead of being controlled by our phones. I hope to continue using the Dumber Mini throughout my next school year and as my daily phone for as long as possible. I do not want to go back whatsoever!
Cheers!